BRUSSELS – Diplomatic relations between Teheran and Brussels could suffer if Belgium’s youngest royal prince asks the former Shah of Iran’s son to be the godfather of his newly born daughter, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel warned on Tuesday.

Speaking about rumours that Belgium’s Prince Laurent may ask Reza Pahlavi to be his daughter Louise’s godfather Michel said such a development could, “pose a diplomatic problem.”

Pahlavi, whose father was deposed by the Ayatollah Khomeni in 1979, is actively campaigning from his home in New York to overthrow the current Islamic fundamentalist regime in Tehran.

“I am making no judgement about that person’s personal qualities,” Michel told Belgian radio.

“But if a member of our royal family, and therefore a member of a Belgian institution, chooses the Shah of Iran’s son to be the godfather of his child, it’s a bit like an official Belgian authority recognising the old regime when there is a new regime in place today that we have contacts with,” he continued.

Michel is currently engaged in some very delicate negotiations with the Iranians over the fate of two young Belgian girls taking refuge at the Belgian embassy in Tehran. 

The girls escaped to the embassy after being kidnapped and taken to Iran by their Iranian father.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Belgian news